Sunday, April 30, 2006

The Muqata Starts Here!

This blog has traveled quite a bit in the past 8 months...yet, someone pointed out to me that it's mission statement of advocating aliya and Israel isn't as nearly clear as I had hoped it would be.

For someone taking a look at this blog for the first time, what do they see? Some blog with Arabic writing at the top, a list of 15 contributors, and no clue what it's all about.

So...I decided to write a posting about the history of this blog, where it comes from and why it exists -- a starting point for newcomers.

The Muqata Presents: Start Here.

This past summer, with the advent of the Disengagement I found myself torn apart as I watched the destruction of the communities of my friends in the Gaza strip and in the Northern Shomron areas. My settlement home isn't far from the destroyed Northern Shomron communities of Chomesh, Sa-nur, Ganim and Kadim -- I even spent a few days living in a tent in Chomesh before the destruction reached there as well.

A friend at work introduced me to the JBlogosphere, and I was enticed by the possibility of broadcasting my message to the world. Noticing that almost all blogs were anonymous, I guess I needed set up an anonymous blog as well. Without putting too much thought into it I came up with the idea for "Jameel @ The Muqata". Yes, I could have picked a better name, my wife wasn't thrilled with it...but it stuck.

Not knowing anyone in the JBlogosphere, I floundered a bit here and there as I jumped from blog to blog trying to break into the chevra...the clique of JBloggers. It was rather depressing at the time, thinking I had missed the boat of getting into the JBlogosphere...and I wrote my first really decent posting about "The Roaring 60's of the JBlogosphere" (or basically, how I missed the boat). Curiously, that was a major inflection point for my blog as I started meeting other bloggers via email and the comments section on other blogs.

It was then I realized the mission statement of my blog. While I had been unable to prevent the Disengagement during the summer -- not through demonstrations and not through living in Chomesh, I decided to actively promote love of Israel, the land of Israel, and aspiration of living in Israel to the JBlogosphere. It doesn't matter if you are secular or religious, left-wing or right-wing (politically) -- the key for me was to promote aliya: ascension to Israel. While life in Israel may not always be a picnic, I try to describe my rather ordinary life in these unordinary times.

And then...just when my blog started making sense, my oldest son's Bar Mitzva approached and I had to take a forced hiatus from blogging. Panicking that I would lose my meager (but loyal) readership during the 2 weeks prior to the Bar Mitzva, I begged 14 blog friends to post on my blog. Little did I know how successful that request would turn out. Not only did these friends excitedly (!) agree to guest blog, but they wrote some of their finest blog posts of all time...and for that I will always be grateful.

Since I'm such a sucker for nostalgia, all those bloggers are still listed on my "contributors" list, which is why this blog may look like a group, collaborative blog. And they are always welcome to post whenever they wish.

The entire list is on my Purim Blogroll (the right-hand side sidebar of my blog) and the list of which blogger parodied who, is over here.

I still have a few ideas of what to do next to continue to promote aliya and keep the JBlogosphere a fun place for all...and if you have any ideas, comments or constructive criticism, please feel free to drop me a line.

There. I think that was a decent introduction. My sidebar has a bunch of classic posts from the past few months...you may enjoy reading some of them as well.

That's all for now - have to think of something real to post for tomorrow...Yom HaZikaron and Yom HaAtzmaut.

54 comments:

Not only didn't you miss the proverbial boat, but you have turned out to be a guiding light... a strong rudder... a 'whatever you call those guys that beat the drums on galley/slave ships' to a whole new generation of Jbloggers!

OK, let's all sit back and listen to the sound of my high school English teacher spinning merrily in her grave over that incredible mixed metaphor, shall we?

Actually that was more of a simile, right? Wait... an analogy, that's what it was!

There's nothing like telling people that's something dying to get them running to look at the corpse. Same with the Jblogosphere. I think you have to repeat that every six months or so just to wake people up! ; )

PsychoToddler: Hey, I remember that song...(even have the tape of it somewhere) Thanks - when we going to see you in Israel? A lot easier to invite you for a meal over here than to shlep to the Midwest US.

Thanks for "Intro to Muqata History 101"... it was an interesting read... and I'm glad to say I started reading it relatively early on... your blog does reflect your aim, in case you needed to hear it....

BEC; I started filming "This is Spinal Tap -- a History of the Muqata", but it went so over budget I had to can the whole project. Maybe if we recoup our losses with the Muqata cap and t-shirt campaign we'll be able to get back on our feet.

FrumGirl: It's always a pleasure to hear it! Thanks... The question is, is my blog making a difference? Time will tell...

Muqata t-shirts -- brilliant! I'll buy 'em.Actually, you really picqued the innards of my memory here because I think I recall you commenting on my other now defunct blog in Muqata's "early days."I was actually a little confused, and I think I read something about you being something like a paramedic (am I imagining that you saw a horrific accident on your way to work one morning and were able to help out?) ... but yeah, the Arabic ...it totally threw me.How bout it people? Round of applause for this fine Jblog!

Anonymous: Every day? Cool :) We'll have to start the Muqata loyalty program, with frequent reader points....though I don't know what they will be redeemable for.

The Sabra: Why get rid of the Arabic? There are many important sifrei kodesh written in arabic, including the Moreh Nevuchim. Why was missing the boat ironic -- unless of course, it was the "Exodus" that I missed.

Ezzie: Live organ donations are on Fridays. See you there.

TAFKAPP: Only the coolest!

I had tried the google language translator, but it didn't quite do the trick -- it translated "Jameel at the Muqata" into Arabic which meant, "Jam and eels with Mocca Tea"

I'm glad you created this post, because I have to admit, I was a bit confused about your blog. I read it on a regular basis, but I never commented because I couldn't figure out "who" you were. The Arabic threw me off. Anyway, I enjoy your blog, so keep up the good work. (and it's not me you have to convince to make aliya, it's my husband ;-))

What a great story! Jack's Shack visited my blog (not sure how he got there but it is listed on a few J-oriented aggregators) and left a comment, I clicked on his name and got to this blog and then decided to click on the link to "start here."

What I most love is how you managed blogging during your oldest's bar mitzvah! My oldest's bar mitzvah is in May of this year and I'm SURE I'm going to need some kind of mechanism to get through it. I love what you did. Thanks for the great idea and I'm going to add this blog to my bloglines. Have a wonderful Purim.

Only found your blog a few months *after* I made aliyah with my family ... but it's good to read from others who've done it and survived and/or prospered. This first year's tough ... but b'H almost in the past ...

Anyway, I was put off at first by the title/Arabic, but read it anyway since I'm into reading all views of things. Was a pleasant surprise to get to the heart of the matter here ...

I love the name Tariq but I don't think it would go with my oh-so-Jewish surname. And used to like Amir until... well, we won't go into that. Am too old for more kids anyway. (Lucky as I think they would have had problems, like Rebbitzin Delilah in Naomi Ragen's latest book.)Do love the irony of the Jameel thing combined with the cute kibbutzy type pics that used to illustrate our Hebrew textbooks back in the dark ages when I went to school.

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Hey Jameel-Was great meeting you today, even if we certainly met somewhere along the way, perhaps years ago. I read your background and I liked how you started and just wanted to say so. Okay, and I also wanted to put a link in to my blog (though I now realize my blog isnt that at all, its just a compendium of articles! but anyway...) See you tomorrow!Laurahttp://www.aliyahbook.com/blog

You should be ashamed of yourself adopting an Arab name for yourself and your blog. You have taken enough from the Palestinians, and now you are also approporiating their language and names. I grew up an Israeli and left as an adult, and am familiar with this ugly habit of assuming Arab language and nicknames.

Israel is a murderous country built on the ruins of the Palestinian people, on war crimes and on ethnic cleansing. Stop playing the poor little victim, you are not a nice people. We, Jews stopped being innocent from the early days of the Zionist movement, but more and more so in the past 60 year.

The victim act is less and less convincing even to those who used to like Israel. By Israel's own actions you are losing the PR battle very rapidly. You are armed to the teeth and the most powerful country in the Middle East. You are an aggressive society that can't live without conflict, now you are pounding the biggest concentration camp in the world. You have to believe everyone hates the Jews to have a sense of your identity. It's time for you to ask questions of yourself about who you are and what you wish to be. For the moment all you contribute to the world is an adversarial spirit, war and murder. Not much of a 'light to the nations' and I doubt that it's what is meant by being 'chosen'...

There is no justification for what you are doing. You are all war criminals not in the least the settler movement, and the tide will turn against you eventually. The world may be slow to react but it isn't blind and it will eventually.

ROTFL! Thanks, your comment really brought a smile to my face. "Stealing" the "Muqata" name from Palestinians? Sheesh -- please add that to our long list of war crimes.

"...and the tide will turn against you eventually." In case you havent noticed, world opinion was never pro-Jewish, and we've been dealing with Holocausts, Pogroms, Inquisitions, Crusades, and Intafadas for 2 thousand years. We survived those, and we'll survive you as well.

Jameel. Way to tell that IDIOT.They are probably in the scumtown of Gaza now pointing missles at Israel. Just another Brainwashed Idiot scumabg. I love your site. Keep upth egood work. God bless Israel.

You dare to call this a war? You creep! A war is between two equal forces. This is a massacre. Stop playing the victims. It's tired and pathetic. And no, I am not writing from Gaza. I am a Jew and a former Israeli. It's really enough now with the victim bullshit. Israel wants to keep occupying the Palestinians and for them to not fight back? Why? Did we take it during the British mandate? The Warsaw ghetto revolt was terrorism? For god's sake. You are all war criminals, those who are bombing and shooting and those who support them.

May says - What is left now, you stole our countries, our tradition, and now our Arabic names too? if we were kind enough to welcome you in our country Palestine, isn't it at least sweet gesture to leave us live in peace?!! but no no no no no no no, that's not the Israeli way!!! ( we used to live in peace (Muslims, Christians, and Jews)but you had to invade Palestine and sabotage everything, we don't have a problem with jews, our problem is with the israeli occupation to our land, the civilians killing, the mass distruction to our homes, schools, mosques, churches...you have a military army (to defend yourselves?!!! well, i am not pro Hamas, but unfortunately Hamas is the only form of self defense we have to stop you from killing our children! becausw with what happened in Gaza lately, there's no way Israel is looking for any kind of peace process!

You are fully provided with all kind of weapons of mass distruction, thanks to the USA!!!,and when we fight back with throwing stones, and throwind home made rockets that reach no were, then we're threatening your lives (what an irony!!!)

We know you have the card blanche to wipe us off the map (Bush Support), but guess what, we're staying no matter how many children you kill, how many trees you wipe out, no matter how many more years you'll cut the water, the electricity, and all sorts of basic life essentials, because we are people of rights, "what's been taken by force, can only be taken back with force" Go Get Your Own Culture, We will keep ours!

Was it the 1929 massacre against Jews in Hevron? The pogroms against Jews in 1936 in Tzfat? The ongoing terror against Jews before thee State of Israel ever existed?

Go back to your fantasyland that everyone was peachy prior to the "evil Zionists" who created Israel in 1948.

The Arabs in the early 1940s were pro-Nazi, and openly cheered on Hitler's final solution. In fact, Hamas demonstrations around the world contained themes of "throw the Jews into the ovens".

Hamas are such trash, they have zero regard for human life, let alone their own. Proof is -- they want hundreds of Hamas prisoners in exchange for ONE Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit? Sort of devalues Hamas that it takes 1000 Hamas terrorists to equal up to even 1 IDF soldier.

So far the best blog about Israel, i have been surfing the net for a website like this, you are doing the right thing... thank you for giving us a peep of what is going on in Israel, like you I pray towards the Holy Temple, peace to Israel and its people. What does muqata means?

Finally taking time to read this post, I saw you up in the audience at the JBloggers convention. After, with a bit of encouragement from bloggers I met, I began The Real Jerusalem Streets. Seems only the bad news from Jerusalem is media worthy, for example, "Race for the Cure" was an amazing day and great op for blog, most of the media missed it, no one got stabbed or protested.The sign for RivkA was the only drama. This week still waiting on Bikur Cholim verdict, look around the corner and it does not look good, wonder which developer wants it?SA